James Pond 3: Operation Starfish

James Pond 3: Operation Starfish is a platformer created by Vectordean and released in 1993. Unlike the previous two games of the series, James Pond 3 was created for the Sega Genesis / Mega Drive and only later ported to Amiga - but only AGA machines: Amiga 1200 and CD32. It was also released for the SNES and other platforms.

The gameplay is similar to the predecessors, and of course, the influence of Sonic or Super Mario is still visible. Anyway, there is quite a significant change: our hero James Pond can no longer stretch his body. Instead, he can use special boots to walk on the ceilings. This third chapter also emphasizes more than ever puzzle solving. There are plenty of power-ups: dynamites, jetpacks, cheese and gateaux guns, and plenty of enemies. The game is massive: over a hundred levels (plus some secret ones), and it's not easy. If James Pond 2: RoboCod was criticized for being too easy, this is not the case anymore.

It's a pity that the graphics have lost some charm: James Pond: Underwater Agent was more colorful. Here you will see a lot of dark backgrounds. Not sure if this is because the Mega Drive could not handle all these enemies on the screen, plus the parallax scrolling. We'll never know. But apart from this, James Pond 3 is a great game, and if you are a fan of the series, you cannot miss it.